This invention relates to a system for temporarily attaching addendums to related documents. A particular application of the present invention relates to the use of a non-drying slightly tacky pressure-sensitive adhesive strip adjacent operative indicia on a document to temporarily attach related addendums such as checks.
Documents used in business, government and consumer transactions are generally either informative or require, permit, or suggest certain appropriate action. Documents which require action by the recipient or holder thereof frequently require submission or handling with related documents or addendum. For example, commonly in business consumer transactions a bill will be divided into two sections. A first top section summarizing the billing information such as breakdown of charges, accounting of rates, mailing addresses and the like. The bottom portion of the document, which is often removable, will commonly be an invoice which is required to be sent with the payment.
The payment and the invoice are closely related and frequently undergo common handling steps by the sending and/or receiving party. In order to insure that the invoice does not become separated from the payment (e.g., a check) during the common handling steps, frequently the payment is attached to the invoice.
Attaching means commonly employed by the payee or the payee's agent are staples or paper clips. Both these attachment means however are not necessarily desirable and have numerous disadvantages. For example, additional handling is required to remove the paper clip or staple which often results in damage to either the attached addendum and/or the document itself. Such damage can complicate further handling. Clips and staples also result in undesirable waste products and related disposal problems. Paper clips are further undesirable in that they easily slide off, resulting in premature detachment of the addendum.
The use of physically separate temporary attachment means, such as paper clips or staples, is further disadvantaged in that conscious effort is required by the sender to locate and use the separate attachment means. As such, the attachment means are not always employed. This results in an increased likelihood of separation of the addendum from the associated documents in the handling process.
It is accordingly a general object of the present invention to substantially alleviate the above noted problems in the art.
It is a more specific object of the present invention to provide a convenient system for temporarily adhering addendum to related documents in a readily removable manner.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a document with an integral attachment means for attaching a related addendum which means allows subsequently detachment of the addendum.